Longtime north Burnaby resident Mary Van Eck is getting ready to whip up a Dutch treat for Lochdale Community School’s annual multicultural dinner – for the first time in 35 years.
The last time she went to the longstanding community potluck, in 1980, she rented traditional Dutch costumes for herself and five-year-old daughter Yvonne, and the Burnaby Today (the NOW’s forebear) was there to snap their photo.
“There’s just a Dutch background in the family,” Van Eck said, remembering the event, “and I thought it would be neat to do that.”
Van Eck will be back this year, but now she’s a grandmother.
Her daughter Nicole Tomanek – who was performing at the dinner 35 years ago and couldn’t dress up in traditional garb – now has a daughter at the school.
“It’s neat that she’s experiencing the same school that I got to go through and that some of the events are still the same, that tradition carries on,” Tomanek said of her daughter.
The dinner was started more than three decades ago in an effort to celebrate cultural diversity at the school, which currently has 287 students who speak 40 different languages at home.
Every year their families and other community members are invited to bring a dish representing their culture to the annual school dinner.
“It is important because there’s lots of new families,” Tomanek said, “and at least they know there’s an event where they can showcase what’s from their country and feel comfortable doing so.”
This year’s event, on May 28 at 6 p.m., will also feature fun for kids, who will be issued passports for which they can earn stamps by answering questions from around the globe.
The neighbourhood around Lochdale has always been an ethnically diverse place, according to Van Eck, but it’s become even more so since that first school potluck, and that’s good for the grandkids, said the Burnaby grandmother.
“They get a broader idea of what the world is all about,” she said.
Van Eck won’t be dressing up for this year’s dinner, saying that’s “the newer generation’s thing now.”
But she might reprise the dish she brought back in 1980: Boerenkool.
“It’s just potatoes and kale mashed together and then served with an hot sausage,” Van Eck said, “very simple and very plain.”
Asked if the dish was a hit 35 years ago, she said she couldn’t remember.
“I think I brought an empty dish home, that’s for sure.”
For more information about Lochdale’s multicultural dinner, call the school (6990 Aubrey St.) at 604-664-8743.
Correction:
An earlier version of this story stated Lochdale's multicultural dinner was on May 26. The correct date is May 28.
